About Me

I am a mother, a teacher, and a nature lover. I grew up on a mountain we called Owls' Knob in the Ozarks of Arkansas. The first seven years of my life were spent living in a log cabin, far from a store or streetlight, without electricity or running water and after twenty years of travel, I returned to the abondoned homestead. Now I live on a hill by a small lake and work at a public garden. These are stories about nature written from a women deeply influenced by place.

Monday, March 21, 2011

A Restless Winter Past

The daffodils are in full bloom, signaling the arrival of spring. The frogs are singing at dawn and dusk. Birds are migrating by the flocks; every morning the song changes. The other night, the toads migrated by the dozens. I had to tiptoe through the darkness so I wouldn’t step one. And a found a salamander emerging from hibernation. So much is happening I can not find the time to write about it on this blog.

Spring is the season of rebirth. And human almost completely miss out of the process. Unlike all the other animals and plants in seasonal places, we refuse to let the winter stop us. When the sun leaves the sky and the days are too short, we change time itself to better suit our needs; or is it just the needs of employers who have eight-hour-workday employees. If the temperature drops and all logic tells us to stay in bed or close to the fire, we still press on, with heaters blasting.

While the bears slow their heart rate and metabolism so that they seem nearly dead, we set our alarm clocks and wake before dawn. Under our scurrying feet, frogs use a chemical in their blood to keep their hibernating body from freezing solid. We have learned to overcome evolution and adaptation with technology. Instead of striving for generations to grow thicker skin, we learn in a single lifetime to make coats. (And that is better until for some reason we can not find the resources to make any more coats.)

So when the warm winds of spring arrive, the rest of the world comes alive. The frogs defrost and rise to the surface of ponds to sing mating songs. Bears emerge from dens in search of food once again. And we reset time, continuing as usual. For the past week, the full moon has pulled me down into a bed during the day and kept me up late. It’s unusually heavy gravitational pull is throwing my internal clock off even after humanities artificially messed with my external clocks.

In short, spring is here and I do not feel rested. But with such radiant beauty outside, I can not find the time to explain myself anymore. Besides, what are you doing reading blogs on the internet, go watch the world outside unfold and let it recharge you, for the long days of summer are on their way.